It took exactly two months from the time Cheng Bee of Star 2 spoke to me about contributing an article on disability to the completion and submission of the manuscript to her. In the months of April and May, I was occupied with co-facilitating Disability Equality Training workshops with Dr. Kuno of JICA.

When I finally had time to start writing, I was overwhelmed in trying to compress the 27 years of my life post spinal cord injury into 1400 words. I spent a number of days writing and rewriting, throwing out the less consequential and adding more significant events as I went along.

There were a few ocassions when I teared, especially while recalling the sacrifices my parents made for me and the last few days of my mother’s life as she slowly drifted away. Although a lot of emotions were stirred up in the course of writing, I felt a sense of fulfillment and serenity when I finally clicked the send button to submit the article.

The response from friends in Facebook and Twitter were truly encouraging. I did not set out with the intention to write an inspirational story of my life. In fact, it was anything but inspirational, seeing how long it took me to realise that there is life after spinal cord injury.

The message is simple. One should quickly go through the denial, rehabilitation and acceptance processes and move on while waiting for that elusive cure. There is no point in putting everything on hold and then realise that twenty year have passed by with nothing to show for it. It is a mistake I hope others in conditions similar to mine do not make. Viva la Vida!

Moving On – My life after spinal cord injury published on 14 July, 2011 in The Star.
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Yesterday was our third wedding anniversary. How did we spend it? We went to Mid Valley Megamall and had a less than memorable lunch at C-Jade Express. Frankly, we are getting disinterested with food in shopping malls. Those are the places that we hang out most on weekends. We have been eating the same food for years and years.

We then went to the Jusco J Card Member’s Day Sale. The size of the crowd was smaller than I had anticipated. I guess the novelty of going for a sale has worn off for many. After all, the various Jusco stores have been running one sale or another throughout the year. The only attraction about this sale is that there is a rebate of RM10 in vouchers for every RM100 spent.

Next stop after shopping was at Institut Sosial Malaysia (ISM) where I conducted the second series of the Introduction to Independent Living seminar for welfare officers from various states in Malaysia. We had a lively discussion on how Independent Living can be implemented in Malaysia and the issues faced by disabled people after the seminar.

Would you believe that Wuan and I went back to Mid Valley Megamall right after that? Yes, that was exactly what we did since it was just a 10 minute drive away from where we were. We had dinner, of all places, at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at The Gardens. That dinner was less than memorable too.

We did a little more shopping at Jusco. The stainless steel drinking bottle that I wanted was not on discount. Instead, we got some energy saving light bulbs that were going for 30% off. That, basically, was how we spent our third wedding anniversary. We definitely need to do something more memorable next year.

The Institut Sosial Malaysia (ISM) under the recommendation of Dr. Kenji Kuno of the Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat Malaysia and Japan International Cooperation Agency invited me to speak on Independent Living for Disabled Persons (Kursus Kehidupan Berdikari bagi OKU – Sesi 1/2010) on Tuesday. The ISM conducts training for civil servants and social workers on matters related to social development.

Peter Tan conducting Independent Living course at Institut Sosial Malaysia.

The main office block and seminar rooms were located atop a hillock just at KM6 of the Lebuhraya Kuala Lumpur – Seremban. It commands a panaromic view of Bandar Tasik Selatan and the surrounding areas. About 20 social welfare officers and social workers participated in the four hour course spread over two sessions.The first session was Pengenalan Kepada Kehidupan Berdikari (Introduction to Independent Living) and the second on History of Independent Living.

Peter Tan sharing the history of Independent Living with participants at Institut Sosial Malaysia.

The practice of Independent Living was new to most of the participants as they were unaware that severely disabled persons too can live independently if given the right support and opportunities. After the sessions ended, I could feel that they got a pretty good grasp of what Independent Living is all about, especially how it is practiced in other countries such as the USA, Sweden and Japan, among others. And I need to brush up on my Bahasa Malaysia. There were more than a couple of times when I could not find the correct words to use and had to be “rescued” by the participants.